Assigned to live at the halfway house would be inmates with no more than six months left on sentences, nonviolent offenders serving short sentences and some on probation.

Such plans are often met with a not-in-my-backyard response, wrote an official at a company bidding on the contract to operate the facility.

"We are also aware that public education ... can mitigate these concerns and the 'not in my backyard' syndrome," wrote David Lowry, executive director of Bannum, a New Port Richey, Fla.-based company that runs 13 federal halfway houses nationwide, in a letter to County Judge Robert Eckels.

Lowry declined to be interviewed by the Chronicle.

Bannum wrote Eckels because the Bureau of Prisons requires bidders to seek input from local officials.

But Commissioners Court does not have the authority to approve or deny the proposed halfway house, said Doug Adkinson, Eckels' deputy chief of staff. Bids must be submitted to the Bureau of Prisons by Nov. 23. The facility would have 163 beds for men and 27 for women, though it might house more than 190 residents.

Residents would undergo regular drug and alcohol tests, but the house would not be walled in. Bannum employees would be taught not to prevent residents from fleeing.

Halfway houses are useful because inmates get a chance to reintegrate into society in a semi-supervised setting before their full release, said bureau spokeswoman Carla Wilson.

Bannum would look for a spot "with the least possible impact on residential areas," but near public transportation, jobs and services, Lowry wrote.

People living near halfway houses elsewhere in the nation have complained about their proximity to schools and the number of halfway house residents who ride neighborhood buses, an Eckels' aide said.

The Bureau of Prisons is not limiting possible sites to unincorporated Harris County and might consider Houston locations, Adkinson said.